Raeda Wazzan

11 results arranged by date

See also: Journalists killed | Media workers killed | Background reports Here is a statistical look at journalists abducted by armed groups in Iraq and held for periods ranging from several hours to many weeks. The analysis, covering the period 2003-09, is followed by capsule reports detailing each abduction.

Iraq was an assignment of unending danger for the hundreds of journalists covering the world's biggest news story. Journalist murders, deaths in crossfire, abductions, and detentions continued apace, reinforcing Iraq's distinction as the most dangerous place in the world to work as a journalist and as one of the deadliest conflicts for media in modern history.

Tags:

New York, October 19, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by today's abduction in Baghdad of a veteran reporter for London's Guardian newspaper. The Guardian said it believes a group of armed men seized Rory Carroll, the paper's Baghdad correspondent, as he left a house in the Sadr City, a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Carroll had been watching the televised trial of Saddam Hussein with a Baghdad family to learn what Iraqi citizens think about the proceedings, the Guardian said.

Tags:

New York, June 13, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of a French journalist and her Iraqi interpreter who had been held captive in Iraq for more than five months.

Florence Aubenas, a veteran foreign correspondent for the French daily Liberation, and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, were freed on Saturday. Hanoun was reunited with his family in Baghdad shortly after his release, while Aubenas arrived home in France on Sunday.

New York, March 4, 2005—Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq for a month, was wounded shortly after her release today and an Italian security agent was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad.

Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto who was held captive since February 4, was taken to an American military hospital, where she had a minor operation on her left shoulder to remove a piece of shrapnel, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told reporters.

Tags:

New York, March 4, 2005—Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq for a month, was wounded shortly after her release today and an Italian security agent was killed when U.S.-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad.

Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto who was held captive since February 4, was taken to an American military hospital, where she had a minor operation on her left shoulder to remove a piece of shrapnel, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told reporters.

Tags:

New York, March 1, 2005—A French reporter who disappeared in Baghdad nearly two months ago appeared pleading for help in a videotape released today by her captors.

In the videotape, Florence Aubenas, a correspondent for the French daily Libération, is shown looking pale and tired and states that she is in bad health, The Associated Press (AP) reported. "Please help me. ... It's urgent," Aubenas said. The journalist also pleaded for French lawmaker Didier Julia, who attempted to mediate the release of two other French journalists held hostage in Iraq last year, to help win her release.

Tags:

New York, February 28, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by the murder of Raeda Wazzan, a news anchor with the Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya who was kidnapped on February 20.

Wazzan’s body was found on Friday, February 25, on a roadside in Mosul, where the journalist had lived and worked, according to press reports citing her husband. She had been shot in the head repeatedly. Gunmen kidnapped Wazzan, as well as her young son, but he was released days later.

Tags:

Wazzan, a news anchor with the Iraqi state TV channel Al-Iraqiya who was kidnapped on February 20, was found dead five days later on a roadside in Mosul, where the journalist had lived and worked, according to press reports citing her husband. She had been shot in the head repeatedly. Gunmen had also kidnapped Wazzan's 10-year-old son, but he was released days later.